photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB
Participants get ready to run the 3.5 mile loop around Spring Lake and Howarth Park
for Santa Rosa High's Civil Unity Club fentanyl awareness run on June 30, 2025.

Santa Rosa's been left reeling from a series of overdoses by high school students, some fatal.

Students, like Enjal Parajuli, are hoping to turn tragedy to awareness.

Parajuli said the overdose death of a peer at Santa Rosa High School in February, "...kind of created...a sour atmosphere at our school."

"A lot of the students [were] feeling kind of helpless and distressed about what happened," Parajuli said. "I saw that as like a big issue with fentanyl poisoning and how it's affecting a lot of teens and even adults in our community, and I wanted to do something to kind of advocate and promote drug awareness."

Parajuli helps run Santa Rosa High's Civil Unity Club and said the group has already, "gathered donations for the LA fires, and we've also done a few events with local hospitals where we send in cards to help cancer patients as well."

Over the weekend, the Civil Unity Club held their third event, a fundraiser and awareness run at Howarth Park in Santa Rosa. 

Song for Charlie, a nonprofit focused on fentanyl awareness, education, and overdose prevention, along with the Empire Runners Club, helped the students organize the Saturday morning run.

Song for Charlie's Christina Julian said, "young people have the power to really shift this, the fentanyl crisis. There's no stopping the flood of fentanyl in, so what we have is the ability to take action and spread awareness."

"These young people are just the people to do that on a peer-to-peer level," Julian said.

Around a dozen runners took on the three and a half mile loop around Spring Lake.

Song for Charlie and the Civil Unity Club offered free Narcan kits and educational material to Saturday's runners, and say they hope students around Sonoma County will continue to educate themselves about the danger of fentanyl poisoning, and overdose prevention.